


Break Through

by orphan_account



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 04:05:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15477309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Written for the prompt duel - 'Late Night Shenanigans'





	Break Through

Anna throws herself over the top of Elsa’s couch, falling onto the cushions in an overly dramatic display, one freckled leg still dangling over the edge. She lays there, quite still, as she listens to the sound of Elsa’s rapid mouse clicking.

“This sucks,” Anna says with a kind of quiet futility, knowing full well that Elsa’s over-the-ear headphones were likely blocking her out completely. Her older sister had spent the better half of the last week playing whatever stupid video game she had let herself get consumed by. Why would Anna expect tonight to be any different? And why had she pleaded with Elsa to let her stay with her over spring break at all?

The memory of last Christmas floods her senses. A million images flash into her mind all at once. Elsa’s naked back. Her hair, let down and pushed back. The steam in the shower, and the slow droplets of water sliding down her chest. Her lips at Elsa’s neck.

Anna pushes her face into the couch cushions hard enough to see orange and purple dots dancing erratically across her slammed-shut eyes.

How had it happened? What planets had aligned, such that Elsa had _noticed_ her? Elsa, her cool big sister who she only got to see a handful of times throughout the year since she had graduated high school. Elsa, who had been literally banished from family events since she had come out a few years ago. Elsa, who had been surprisingly passionate beneath that calm and collected exterior. What about the last time had been so different, and why didn’t Elsa want her that way _now_?

Anna flops in mock helplessness on the couch. None of the questions running through her head were any that she could ask aloud. And by now, with only a few more days to go before she went back home, she had all but given up. She hadn’t even brought her pile of homework, or a book, or her laptop. She had thought she would be quite busy, and she had apparently thought wrong.

“Boooooored,” she groans into the cushion as she kicks her legs with uncontrollable energy.

The sound of the mouse clicking ceases.

“It’s pretty late. Why aren’t you asleep?” Elsa asks quietly as she pulls her headphones off, resting them around her neck. The sound of her voice makes Anna bolt up to peer at her over the top of the couch.

“Not tired,” Anna replies quickly, forcing the excitement out of the tone of her voice so that she can replace it with mock anger. “Just really, really, _really_ bored.”

“Can’t you find something to keep yourself busy with?” Elsa responds coolly as she reaches for her drink and brings it to her lips. Anna catches herself staring and tears her gaze away.

“But your apartment is so boring. Let’s _do_ something!”

“Like what?” Elsa asks pointedly as she sets the drink down on the desk with a glass clinking sound to accentuate the silence that follows.

“I.. I don’t know,” Anna says, thinking as hard and as quickly as she can. Now that she’s on the spot she has no idea what she wants. She decides to do the tried and true method of blurting out the first thing that comes to mind.

“Let’s go shopping! We could buy stuff to make brownies. I--”

“Anna,” Elsa interrupts her, “It’s two in the morning. Everything’s closed.”

“Gas stations have food!”

“I’m not buying _food_ at a gas station.” Elsa replies calmly.

“Fast food?!”

“I have a very delicate stomach; you know that,” Elsa pauses, reaching for her headphones.

“Uh.. how about a slumber party?” Anna says with a coy, teasing tone, as she gives her older sister a lopsided grin.

“How old are you again?” Elsa asks as she pulls the headphones back on, not waiting for an answer.

Anna groans and shoves herself off the couch. Elsa’s absorbed immediately, not even glancing over as Anna walks past her into the guest room.

 _I’m so fucking done with this. I’ll just have to make my_ own _fun._ Anna’s thoughts course through her in anger as she opens a plastic tub in the closet labelled “Computer Misc”.

 

* * *

 

It takes some time to set it up. It’s not terribly difficult, considering that all of Elsa’s mental energy is focused on a computer screen. Still, Anna has to wait for Elsa to use the restroom before she can enact her plan. Once the bathroom door shuts, Anna rushes over to Elsa’s computer and slides the wireless USB connector into the back of the tower. Then, she vaults back over top the couch. She pulls a magazine from the coffee table and pretends to read as Elsa returns.

Once Elsa’s back in her seat, Anna puts the magazine down on the couch and sets the small, black wireless mouse down atop it. She peaks over the back of the couch. Elsa is balls deep in her video game. It’s some competitive game that involves a lot of precise clicking. Occasionally, Elsa will curse at the screen. Despite everything, Anna can’t help but feel the knots in her stomach twist each time Elsa whispers _fuck_. Even if it’s not for her.

Anna moves the mouse a few inches. It glides across the magazine’s smooth surface.

“What the hell...” Elsa curses, louder than usual. Anna feels lightheaded with delight. It’s _working_. She waits about a minute, and swipes her mouse again, hard to the left.

“Oh my _god_. What’s wrong with this thing?” Elsa tears her headphones off her ears and pulls her mouse up to her face. She sits in silence for a moment, and Anna imagines that she must be inspecting it from every angle. She hears the click of the power button. Off, then back on. Anna puts her free hand up to her mouth as Elsa sets the mouse back down and puts her headphones back on.

After a few more eternal minutes of waiting for Elsa to feel like it was just a temporary glitch, Anna decides to take a different route. She moves the mouse just a hair, every few seconds.

“God, _damn_ it.” Elsa says finally, and then she suddenly stands up. Anna shoves her own mouse between the couch cushions and pulls the magazine up to her face.

“What’s up?” Anna says, managing to sound normal, despite wanting to cry with laughter.

“My mouse is broken,” Elsa mumbles.

“Oh _no_ . What are you going to do _now_?”

Elsa rounds to the front of the couch. Anna starts to feel a nervous heat rising up into her chest, and she desperately hopes the mouse was hidden well enough in her haste. Then, Anna notices that Elsa’s hand is clutching her elbow. Anna tilts her head. She starts to say something, but then she realizes that Elsa is staring at her. She pulls in a deep breath as she tries to read Elsa’s expression.

“I’m going to bed,” Elsa says flatly. As she walks towards her bedroom, Anna drops the magazine onto her face and lays in the empty living room.

She’s still not tired.

 

* * *

 

Eventually, Anna pushes herself up off the couch and goes into the guest bedroom. There’s an old TV in there with a built in VHS tape slot. She shoves a movie in and turns the volume up to blasting. She vaults onto the bed, sitting with her chin resting on her knees, and her arms wrapped around her shins. She waits.

As the horror movie’s first kill scene comes to a head, with chainsaws tearing into flesh and women crying and screaming, the corner of Anna’s lip curves up as she hears Elsa’s bedroom door open, and the approach of her footsteps on the wood floor.

“ _Anna_.”

“Sup?”

“What’s wrong with you? That’s.. way too loud. I’m _trying_ to _sleep_.” Elsa has to raise her voice to speak louder than the movie, and it’s obvious that she’s starting to get angry.

“I’m sorry, is the thing that’s keeping me entertained too loud for you?” Anna snaps back, voice pitching with more mock anger. If should could create the right scene, then maybe things would change. If only she could break through, then--

“I _do_ have neighbors. They’ll call the cops.”

“That’d be more exciting than the _nothing_ that’s happening right now.” And she says it with way more pain than she had meant to. She wanted frustration. She wanted anger. She didn’t want to make herself seem so vulnerable, and hurt, and alone. She didn’t want to make herself seem the way she felt.

It’s suddenly jarring to hear the movie’s suspenseful music and the panting breaths of the woman being chased on the TV. Anna reaches for the remote and turns the movie off, but the newly gained silence is somehow even harder to bear.

Elsa frowns slightly, and comes to sit at the side of the bed. Not too close, but not too far. It’s the first real interaction they’ve had beyond the initial pleasantries that they had gotten out of the way on the first day Anna arrived. Anna can feel her heart racing.

“Since when did you like scary movies, anyway?” Anna asks, if only to break the silence.

I.. I don’t,” Elsa says, voice going soft, “That one isn’t mine.”

“Whose is it?”

“Oh, just... a friend,” Elsa’s voice breaks a little as she says the words.

“A friend who somehow convinced you to watch a horror movie must be a pretty good friend,” Anna announces, searching Elsa’s face for a reaction, and finding one. Elsa looks… regretful. The hand at her elbow clutches tighter.

“Were you… together?” Anna asks gently.

“Something like that, but... not anymore.”

Anna suddenly wonders what it would be like to be Elsa’s girlfriend. She imagines what a morning together would be like. Waking up to Elsa’s smile. Making breakfast together. Going to see a movie. Arguing about silly things. And it’s then that Anna realizes that she and Elsa have done all of those things, and so much more.

“Well, she’s missing out,” Anna remarks, surprising herself with her forwardness. And it seems to surprise Elsa too. Anna notices the redness at Elsa’s cheeks at the same time that she feels the heat at her own chest.

“Yeah, well, it was probably mostly my fault, anyway.” Elsa says deflatedly. She closes her eyes, and then shakes her head. “I’m sorry. I know you’re bored. I just, haven’t had the energy for anything else. I should have told you not to come, but I didn’t want to be alone.”

“Elsa,” Anna says, tenderness spiked with guilt as she realizes all at once how much of a selfish ass she’s been. She scoots closer and wraps an arm around her big sister. Elsa leans into her.

“I’m glad you let me stay,” Anna says after a while. “But _now_ we’re gonna do what _I_ wanna do.”

 

* * *

 

They take a walk to the gas station down the street. They buy prepackaged brownies, mostly due to Elsa’s insistence in not trusting gas station milk. Anna splurges, buying all kinds of snacks and drinks and even a weird pink-colored straw cowboy hat that she decides to wear on the walk back.

“You’re ridiculous. You know that, right?” Elsa says, smiling for maybe the first time since Anna’s arrival. “I mean that in the most loving way possible, but still.”

“Whoa there, pardner. You besn’t be beratin’ my fashion sense, ya hear?” Anna replies with a deep southern twang, making cowboy gun fingers and shooting at Elsa.

Elsa giggles, and her eyes close. When she opens them, Anna notices the start of tears.

Anna drops her hands and her eyes widen, she opens her mouth to speak, but Elsa cuts her off before she can say anything.

“I’m fine,” Elsa says with a quiet confidence. “I just... I needed this. I needed _you_. I’m actually kind of glad my mouse stopped working.”

“Uh, yeah,” Anna says slowly, “about that…”


End file.
